British detectives investigating the Lockerbie bombing are to travel to Libya for the first time.

Under a deal sealed by David Cameron on his surprise visit to Tripoli yesterday, officers from the Dumfries and Galloway force in Scotland will travel to the Libyan capital next month.

The team of detectives hope to track down the masterminds behind Britain’s worst ever terrorist atrocity, in which 270 people died in 1988 after the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.

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Prime Minister David Cameron met Libyan President Megarief during his surprise visit to Tripoli yesterday

David Cameron returned to Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya yesterday where he met market traders and locals during a surprise visit to the city

The Prime Minister was mobbed by crowd during his walkabout ahead of a meeting with Libyan PM Ali Zeidan and President Megarief

270 people were killed when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988

Metropolitan Police detectives
investigating the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who was gunned down
outside Libya’s London embassy in 1984, were also given permission to
make a fourth visit to the country later this month.

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Mr Cameron, who defied security
warnings to travel to Libya, told a press conference in Tripoli: ‘In all
of these cases I want to achieve justice and full uncovering of all the
facts.’

It is the first time Mr Cameron has been to Libya since his triumphant speech in September 2011 to mark the downfall of Colonel Gaddafi

David Cameron yesterday promised Britain would do more to help Libyan security as he addressed a graduation ceremony for Police Officers in Tripoli

Mr Cameron addressed new recruits to the Libyan police at a training camp, where he promised more help from Britain

British police and troops are expected to work closely with their Libyan counterparts amid concern that the new government has struggled to get a grip on security

Cameron

Hailing the breakthrough as a
dividend of the Arab Spring, he added: ‘It is unthinkable that they
would ever have been allowed into the country to ask questions under
Gaddafi.’

Former Libyan intelligence officer
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi remains the only person ever convicted over the
Lockerbie atrocity.

He died in May 2012, three years after being
controversially released from a Scottish prison on compassionate
grounds.

But several other Libyan figures are
thought to have been involved in the attack, which turned Libya into a
pariah state under Colonel Gaddafi.

Scottish detectives will now hold talks with the Libyan authorities on the scope of their inquiry.
A government source said: ‘They are very keen to come to Libya to talk to people and follow leads that they have.’

Mr Cameron insisted that despite the upsurge in violence in Libya, the
Arab Spring was ‘still part of the solution, not the problem’.

He said the lesson of past efforts to cosy up to brutal dictators in the
Middle East was that it ‘stores up problems for the future’.

Weapons from Libya are thought to have been involved in the Algerian gas
plant massacre last month in which six Britons died.

Acknowledging
problems in the region, Mr Cameron said: ‘Of course, when a brutal
dictator is removed after 40 years, inevitably you take the lid off all
sorts of problems and tensions.’

But, announcing new co-operation on security, he said a stable Libya would benefit the world.

He said: ‘We’re much better off in Britain with a democratic Libya but
we’ll only be truly better off when it’s a secure and democratic Libya.’

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan backed the investigation into
Lockerbie, saying it was important to ‘know the facts’ about the Gaddafi
regime’s crimes. Mr Zeidan said he was willing to discuss further
measures to achieve ‘truth and justice’.

He hailed Mr Cameron’s ‘courageous’ decision to come at a time when
observers fear Libya is in danger of becoming a crucible for militants
across the Sahara region.

Earlier, Mr Cameron had toured a police training centre on the outskirts of Tripoli.

He told police recruits it was ‘very good to be back’. ‘I will never
forget the scenes I saw in Tripoli and Benghazi,’ he said, referring to
his visit to Libya in 2011 after the toppling of Gaddafi.

‘The British people want to stand with you and help you deliver the greater security that Libya needs.

‘In building a free and secure Libya you will have no greater ally than the UK. We will stick with you every step of the way.’

Hundreds of police recruits in navy blue uniforms lined up in the Tripoli sunshine to listen to the British Prime Minister

Mr Cameron was joined by Libya's Interior Minister Ashour Shuail at the graduation ceremony for Police Officers

The two Prime Ministers later held a press conference, as it emerged UK police investigating the Lockerbie bombing have been given permission to visit Tripoli

Tragic: The gas facility in Amenas where International and Algerian hostages were killed in a terrifying ordeal